Mystery Diner: Fox River Grove's La Pizza Via a step above in quality

Living so close to Chicago, pizza options abound. From the chains that are everywhere to the chains that are right here to mom and pop shops, you can find pretty much anything in the genre.

But I kept hearing good things about La Pizza Via in Fox River Grove and it keeps showing up in our Best of the Fox voting.

So, we had to try it.

The shop is located in the shopping complex near the corner of Route 14 and Route 22, in the same general shopping complex as Jewel-Osco with Fox River Grove's famous ski jump as the backdrop.

A lot of the customers seemed like regulars and ordered carryout, but there's actually a few tables outside and a whole dining area adjacent to where you order so it's more than comfortable to dine in.

On a recent Wednesday, we picked out a seat at a large table and went through the menu.
They ship in gluten-free crust from Connecticut, which seemed at first to be an odd thing to do, until we tasted the gluten-free pepperoni ($14.50). I think we have a new favorite there, and we tried it across McHenry County.

We also ordered a few appetizers, the baked mozzarella sticks ($10) and the chicken tenders ($8.50) with barbecue sauce.

In both cases, you expect to get the regular versions on these order, but La Pizza Via is anything but that. They make their own signature marinara sauce and the breaded mozzarella sticks were clearly hand-breaded, with a much softer outer feel than a normal mozzarella sticks.

And the cheese was perfectly melted inside.

As for the chicken tenders, they aren't your regular chicken tenders with a uniform shape. They are clearly made with the actual white meat chicken breast and the shape isn't the same for each one.

There were four huge tenders, one that was more of an oval-type shape and three others that were almost shaped like a drumstick.

One of my fellow diners, a younger one, said she didn't wanted to eat it because she didn't want to have to eat it off a bone. Again, they are clearly hand-breaded and in this case they're potato chip crusted. Wow, were they good.

We also just had to order a second pizza. La Pizza Via has a ton of options with influence from throughout the country. They also have calzones, sandwiches, pastas and stuffed breads.
But we ended up picking out the large Detroit-style Spicy Meatball ($22) over a Chicago cracker-thin, New York Style or New Haven thin crust pizza or even a New York pan.

It came out hot and it didn't lie about being spicy, which came from the chopped hot cherry pepper which goes along with the house-made meatballs, white cheddar and Wisconsin brick cheese and both ricotta and romano.

Everything else was really good, but the pizza was a highlight. It came in two quite large Detroit-style squares, cut in four, and we ended up bringing half of it home with us.

As if that wasn't enough, we finished it off with two chocolate chip cannolis ($4.50) from the dessert menu. From start to finish, it was a great meal. This spot is staying on our list.

(The gluten-free pepperoni pizza)

• The Mystery Diner is an employee at the Northwest Herald. The diner’s identity is not revealed to restaurant staff before or during the meal. The Mystery Diner visits a restaurant and then reports on the experience. If the Mystery Diner cannot recommend the establishment, we will not publish a story.